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Ethics Plan for Inquiries Involving People
The St. Olaf Ethics Plan is designed to help investigators design and conduct an ethical inquiry that involves
gathering information from or about people. Ethics Plans for projects with student investigators must be reviewed
and approved by the student’s faculty/staff project supervisor. If the project requires advisory review or review and
approval by the St. Olaf Institutional Review Board (IRB), the Ethics Plan, together with all attachments, must be
submitted electronically by a St. Olaf faculty or staff member via email to irb-administrator@stolaf.edu.
Requests for IRB review of projects with student investigators must be submitted by the faculty or staff project
supervisor. Submission signifies that:
 Both the investigator(s) and the faculty/staff supervisor have completed the research ethics training
appropriate to the features of the project;
 The supervisor has reviewed the ethics plan and accompanying attachments and believes that the project
meets the ethical requirements of beneficence, respect, and justice as described in the St. Olaf document
Inquiries Involving People: Ethical Principles, Practical Applications, and Investigator Obligations.
Project investigator(s) (names and email addresses):
Project title:
Faculty/staff project supervisor (for projects with student investigators):
Course department and number (if applicable):
Federal agency, community partnership, or grant funding supporting this project (if applicable):
Date of this Ethics Plan submission:
Certification of investigator research ethics training (check all that apply):
 Inquiries Involving People: Ethical Principles & Applications (St. Olaf statement)
 General Social and Behavioral Investigations (CITI course)
 Investigations with Greater than Minimal Risk (CITI course)
 Investigations of Vulnerable Populations (CITI course)
 Investigations Conducted Abroad (CITI course)
 Community-Based, Records-Based, and Internet Investigations (CITI course)
Attachments (check and attach all that apply):
 Data-collection instrument (written questionnaire, interview questions, test, description of
procedure, observational coding sheet, etc.)
 Recruitment/invitation text (email message, letter, Psych 125 Research Participation study
description, flyer, poster, oral announcement, etc.)
 Information for Participants document or oral statement
 Documentation of Consent form or electronic acknowledgment text
 Authorization to Contact Prospective Participants form, signed by appropriate individual
 Application for IRB Review
 Other document(s) [list if applicable]:
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Project purpose, participants, and procedures
1. Project abstract. What are the main research questions you are seeking to answer in conducting
this investigation? What kind of information will you gather from/about people, and what methods
will you use? What makes this project significant or worthwhile?
2. Whom are you studying in this project? Check all that apply, and provide a brief description of the
individuals from or about whom you will be collecting data.
 A. Currently-enrolled St. Olaf students
 B. St. Olaf alumni
 C. St. Olaf faculty or staff
 D. Individuals who are not St. Olaf students, employees, or alumni
Description of the individuals you will be studying:
3. Approximately how many individuals do you hope to gather information from or about in
conducting this project?
4. How will you gather information from or about these individuals? Check all that apply, identify
and/or briefly describe each instrument(s) (questionnaire, interview questions, test, etc.), and attach
a copy of each you will use to gather information:
 A. Written questionnaire
 B. Interview
 C. Focus group
 D. Observation of behavior or performance in a private setting
 E. Psychological or cognitive test
 F. Measurement of physical characteristics or administration of physical test
 G. Collection and analysis of physical samples (hair, skin cells, blood, saliva, etc.)
 H. Collection and analysis of artifacts (students’ written assignments, personal or educational
journals, etc.)
 I. Analysis of information that was previously gathered by someone else, requiring no additional
interaction with the individuals you are studying
 J. Observation of behavior or performance in a public setting (e.g., in a shopping mall)
 K. Other (please describe):
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Beneficence: Protecting the well-being of the people you are studying
5. What risks, if any, could your method(s) of gathering information pose to the people you are
studying? Think carefully about the individuals who will be participating in your project, since
different people may respond in different ways to the same question, test, or other procedure.
Which of the following types of risks might your project pose for these individuals? Check all that
apply and explain below:
Psychological risks – Your method(s) of gathering information may cause participants to experience
more stress, anxiety, depression, or feelings of guilt or shame than they would ordinarily experience
in daily life. Please indicate whether your project includes:
 A. Questions about personally-traumatic events
 B. Offensive or threatening questions
 C. Questions about attitudes, behaviors, experiences, or circumstances that may prompt strong
feelings of fear, guilt, sadness, or shame
 D. Exposure to offensive, degrading, or frightening material
 E. Manipulation of the participants’ environment – isolation, negative messages, etc.
 F. Deception that causes distress once the subjects are debriefed
 G. Other
If you checked any of the above boxes (5 A-G), please elaborate on the psychological risks
posed by this project:
Legal, academic, or social risks – The information you are gathering is not anonymous, and the
findings, if disclosed, could put a participant at risk of civil or criminal liability, or damage his or her
financial standing, academic standing, employability, or reputation. Legal , academic, or social risks
are posed by procedures that gather individually-identifiable information (that is, information that
can be traced to a specific individual) about:
 H. Illegal activities
 I. Activities or behaviors that violate institutional policies
 J. Activities or behaviors that violate social norms
 K. Activities, opinions or beliefs that could invite retaliation or other repercussions from others
 L. Circumstances that could harm a participant’s employability, such as a previous job loss or a
health problem
 M. Behaviors that could harm a participant’s reputation, such as alcohol use or sexual behaviors
 N. Other
If you checked any of the above boxes (5 H-N), please elaborate on the legal, academic, or
social risks posed by this project:
 O. Physical risks – Your method(s) of gathering information may cause injury or physical
discomfort beyond what would be experienced in normal daily activities.
If you checked Box 5 O, please elaborate on the physical risks posed by this project:
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 P. None of the above – Your method of gathering information is unlikely to pose psychological,
legal, academic, social, or physical risks of harm or discomfort beyond what people are likely to
experience in normal daily activities.
If you checked any box in Item 5 other than 5 P, please attach a completed Application for IRB
Review form.
6. How much time will your project require from the people you are studying? Please discuss any
other costs they will incur from participation.
7. What direct or indirect benefits, if any, will participants experience as a result of their
participation? Check all that apply and explain briefly below.
 A. Opportunity to reflect on or discuss significant issues
 B. Enhanced self-understanding
 C. Awareness of resources or opportunities
 D. Other benefits to participants
Please elaborate:
8. What benefits to individuals or groups other than the participants may result from your project?
 A. Contribution to the investigator’s knowledge and/or research abilities
 B. Contribution to organizational knowledge (for projects with organizational or institutional
clients)
 C. Contribution to scholarship
 D. Other contributions (please describe):
Please elaborate. For example, if you are surveying the clients of a community organization and are
sharing results with the organization, you could discuss the value of the results to the organization’s
work. If there are no direct benefits, consider indirect or community benefits, such as your own
willingness to participate in other investigators’ projects in the future.
9. Review the information you provided above about the risks (if any), costs, and benefits (if any) of
participation in your project, as you have described them above. Explain briefly why it is
appropriate to ask others to participate in your project in view of these potential risks, costs, and
benefits. For example, you can discuss the steps you took to minimize or eliminate potential harms
and to limit the time commitment necessary to participate. You can indicate that gathering
information directly from people is critical to answering the research questions you are investigating.
You can discuss the nature of St. Olaf as a community of inquiry.
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Respect: Honoring people’s rights to privacy, freedom, and self-determination
10. Please indicate whether a principal purpose of your investigation is to study any of the following
categories of persons. The study of some of these categories of persons may involve additional
measures for protecting their rights to privacy, freedom, and self-determination. Please check all
that apply:
 A. Minors (children and adolescents under age 18)
 B. Individuals who may be economically or educationally disadvantaged (e.g., recent
immigrants, low-income persons, persons of color)
 C. Adults (age 18 or older) whose decision-making may be compromised for reasons of mental
illness, developmental disability, age-related dementia, or other condition
 D. Individuals in correctional institutions, health care facilities, or long-term care facilities
 E. Persons with physical conditions that may make some types of procedures riskier for them
(e.g., pregnant women, persons with food allergies)
 F. Not applicable; my investigation is not focused on any of the above categories of persons
If you checked any of the first five boxes (10 A-E), please attach a completed Application for IRB
Review form.
11. How will you invite people to participate in your project? Check all that apply and explain briefly
below:
 A. Not applicable, because I am analyzing data that has already been gathered.
 B. I will use public venues (e.g., posters or flyers in public spaces, ads in newspapers) to
distribute information about the project and recruit participants
 C. I will post a description of my study on the Research Participation Sign-Up Sheet on the
Psychology 125 Subject Pool Moodle site
 D. A third party (someone other than I) will provide prospective participants with information
about the project
 E. I will send information about the project directly to the individuals I am inviting to
participate, using email, campus mail, US mail, telephone, social media, or some other means of
direct contact
 F. Other:
Please elaborate on your method of recruitment, and attach the text of the email message, letter,
Psych 125 Research Participation sign-up sheet, flyer, poster, oral announcement, or other
communication you or your third-party contact will use to invite people to participate.
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12. If you are contacting individuals directly with an invitation to participate, through email, campus
mail, telephone, or some other means of direct communication, how will you make sure you do
not violate their privacy in the method you use to contact them? In other words, what are you
doing so that prospective participants don’t wonder how you got their email address or telephone
number, and so you don’t share the prospective participants’ contact information with one another?
Check all that apply and explain:
 A. Not applicable, because I am analyzing data that has already been gathered, or a third party
is contacting prospective participants on my behalf.
 B. I will use contact information that is publicly available (a publicly-available directory, a list of
individuals and contact information on a publicly-available website, etc.)
 C. I will use contact information that is not publicly-available, but that I am authorized to use
(for example, you are the instructor of a course and you are administering a questionnaire to
your students, or you are a member of an organization and you are interviewing other members
of the organization, or I am enrolled in a psychology course and will seek approval to post a
Research Participation sign-up sheet on the Psychology 125 subject pool Moodle site).
 D. I will use contact information that is not publicly-available, but that I have been given
appropriate permission to use (for example, a course instructor has given permission to contact
students in her course and has supplied a course email alias, or a non-profit organization staff
member has collected names and telephone numbers from interested clients of the
organization and, with their permission, has provided them to you).
 E. Other:
Please describe your method of contacting prospective participants and how you will ensure that
their contact information is not shared with anyone else (for example, if you are using email, you
will create an email alias rather than using individual usernames). If you checked Box 12 D, attach a
completed Authorization to Contact Prospective Research Participants form.
13. Will participants receive incentives, inducements, or rewards for participation (e.g., satisfaction of
a course requirement, extra credit, refreshments, gift certificates, monetary compensation)?
A. No
B. Yes [describe if applicable]:
14. Does your project require you to secure the informed consent of the people you are studying? To
answer this question, please review your response to Item 4.
 A. No; I am analyzing data that has already been gathered (Box 4 I) or observing public behavior
(Box 4 J). If you checked this box, skip to Item 17.
 B. Yes; I am administering a survey or test, conducting interviews or focus groups, observing
private behavior, or engaging project participants in some other way.
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15. If you checked Box 14 B, you need to provide specific information about your project to your
prospective participants so they can make an informed decision about whether to participate.
Please indicate below how you will provide this information to your prospective participants, and
make sure that the information is incorporated in the attachments to this Ethics Plan. Please use
the Project Information for Participants worksheet, available on the Research Ethics website, to
prepare this information for your participants. The project information needs to address all the
items in the worksheet, and it needs to be in language that your prospective participants can
understand.
 A. Orally: I will provide the Information for Participants orally [please attach the Information
for Participants statement you will provide orally].
 B. In writing [required for projects with greater than minimal risk]: I will include the
Information for Participants material in the following documents [please check and attach all
that apply]:
1. In my written recruitment/invitation message
 2. In my data-collection instrument (survey, test, etc.)
 3. As a stand-alone document: I will provide an Information for Participants document
separately from the recruitment message but before participants begin participating
(answering questions, taking tests, etc.)
 C. Other (please describe):
16. How will you document that your participants have received and understood the project
information and consent to participate? The requirements for documenting consent depend on the
characteristics of your investigation. Please check the appropriate box and attach your
Documentation of Consent form or statement, if applicable.
 A. No documentation: If a project poses no greater than minimal risk (indicated by checking
Box 5 P, “none of the above”), no documentation of consent is required (though participants will
still receive project information as described in my response to Item 15 above). Those who
participate after receiving project information are assumed to have consented.
 B. Electronic documentation: When data are being gathered entirely through electronic
means, the process requires participants to confirm electronically, prior to their participation,
that they have read the project information, had the opportunity to receive answers to any
questions, and consent to participate. [Required for electronic data collection procedures that
include items posing greater-than-minimal risk.]
 C. Paper documentation: Prior to their participation, participants will indicate that they have
read the project information, had the opportunity to receive answers to any questions, and
consent to participate by signing two copies of a consent form and keeping one copy for
themselves (attach Documentation of Consent form). [Required for greater-than-minimal risk
projects involving face-to-face interaction between the investigator and the participants; paper
documentation also may be helpful for recording participants’ preferences with respect to the
sharing of individually-identifiable information.]
 D. Oral documentation: If a signed Documentation of Consent form could increase risk for
participants (by providing an identifiable record of participation or particular responses),
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consent may be provided orally and will not be documented in writing. [May be desirable in
some greater-than-minimal risk projects.]
17. How will you keep the data you are gathering secure while you are conducting your investigation,
so that others who are not conducting or supervising this project will not have access to it? In
order to protect the privacy of your participants, you need to ensure that no one other than you, your
co-investigators (if any), and your instructor or supervisor (if applicable) will have access to the raw
data (survey or interview responses, test results, etc.) as you are gathering it. Please check all that
apply:
 A. Paper records (e.g., handwritten notes from interviews) will be kept in a locked file or room
 B. Electronic records will be stored on the St. Olaf network with restricted access (e.g., a shared
drive or personal drive)
 C. Electronic records will be stored in a web-based “cloud” system (such as Google drive) with
restricted access
 D. Electronic records will be stored on the hard-drive of a password-protected personal or
office computer in a locked room (IT does not recommend storing sensitive data on any form of
portable device, including USB flash drives, laptops, or other devices)
 E. Other (please explain):
18. How will you keep the data secure after you have completed your project or report? What will
you do with the raw data at the conclusion of your project?
 A. I will shred or delete the raw data as soon as I have completed my project.
 B. I will shred or delete the raw data at the end of the academic year; in the meantime, I will
keep the data secure as described in the preceding item.
 C. I will shred or delete the raw data when I am no longer a St. Olaf student or employee; in the
meantime, I will keep the data secure as described in the preceding item.
 D. The data will not be destroyed, but will be archived in a secure location (please explain):
 E. Other (please explain):
19. With whom will project results be shared? Check all that apply and provide a brief description of
the dissemination plan. Please discuss tentative or aspirational prospects for dissemination as well
as plans that are more certain.
 A. Results will be shared only with St. Olaf College faculty, staff, and/or students.
 B. Results will, or may, be shared with audiences outside St. Olaf College (linked on a website,
reported to an external organization, presented at a conference, submitted for publication, etc.)
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Please describe your dissemination plan:
20. What agreement are you making with your participants about whether others will be able to
identify them in your reports about the results of your project? Review your document for
informing your participants’ consent and check one of the following:
 A. My participants will be asked to permit their information to be identifiable (so others may
be able to identify them in any reports I disseminate), and I will secure their written or
electronic consent to this identifiability.
 B. My participants will provide their information anonymously, so I will be unable to tell whose
information is whose when I analyze and report the data, and I will be unable to provide
identifiable information in any reports I disseminate.
 C. My participants will be asked to provide their information confidentially, so that even
though I may be able to tell whose information is whose, I will not share that information with
others; and I will agree to protect their identities in any reports that I disseminate.
 D. My participants will be invited to choose whether their information will be identifiable or
confidential; each participant’s decision will be recorded in their written or electronic consent
document, and I will honor each participant’s decision.
 E. Other (please explain):
21. How will you carry out the agreement(s) you are making with your participants about whether
others will be able to identify them in your reports? Check all that apply:
 A. I will only use identifiable information from participants from whom I have documented
agreement to identifiability.
 B. My participants’ information is anonymous (see definition for Box 20 B), so I will be unable to
provide identifiable information in any reports I disseminate.
 C. If I include any individual-level information in my paper, poster, presentation, or other
reporting (for example, quotes from interviews or responses to survey questions), I will remove
any potentially-identifying information for participants who have requested confidentiality
 D. Before analyzing the data, I will discard all identifying information from my records
 E. When analyzing the data, I will keep identifying information separate from the other
information I gather from the participants
 F. I will not report any individual-level information (such as quotes) at all; results will be
reported in aggregated (grouped) form only
 G. I will remove potentially-identifying information (e.g., demographic descriptors) from
aggregated (grouped) data (particularly important for small and distinctive groups)
H. (For student investigators) I will ask my project supervisor to read a draft of my report or my
presentation outline before sharing it with anyone else, to make sure that my report respects
the agreements I made with my participants about the identifiability of their information.
 I. I will take the following additional steps [please describe]:
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Justice: Accounting for social patterns of power and privilege
22. Are persons from any of the following categories of “vulnerable populations” likely to participate
in your investigation, even if they are not the principal focus of your project? For example, if you
are administering a survey to college students or interviewing people who live in Hennepin County,
your participants may include people who are not yet age 18, low-income people, or people whose
native language is not English. Social patterns of power and privilege mean that such persons are
considered “vulnerable” to additional risks, unfair pressure to participate in burdensome research, or
agreement to participate without fully understanding what is being asked of them. Please indicate
whether your participants may include any of the following by checking all that apply:
 A. Minors (children and adolescents under age 18)
 B. Individuals who may be economically or educationally disadvantaged (e.g., recent
immigrants, low-income persons, persons of color)
 C. Adults (age 18 or older) whose decision-making may be compromised for reasons of mental
illness, developmental disability, age-related dementia, or other condition
 D. Individuals in correctional institutions, health care facilities, or long-term care facilities
 E. Persons with physical conditions that may make some types of procedures riskier for them
(e.g., pregnant women, persons with food allergies)
 F. Not applicable; none of the above categories of persons will be included among my
participants
23. How does your investigation avoid unfair treatment of any of the vulnerable persons who may
participate in your project? Check all that apply and explain as needed below.
 A. Not applicable; none of the above categories of vulnerable persons will be included among
my participants
 B. I evaluated and, if necessary, adjusted my project procedures (interview questions, test
procedures, etc.) so they would not affect vulnerable persons any differently than they affect
any other participants
 C. I made sure my Project Information was understandable for people of varying ages and
backgrounds
 D. I conferred with an advisor with expertise or experience working with the types of vulnerable
populations included in my study
 E. I made sure that any incentives included in my study are fairly available to all prospective
participants and don’t create undue influence to participate
 F. Other:
Please elaborate as needed:
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24. Please provide any other information about the ways in which your project reflects the ethical
principles of beneficence, respect, and justice. If you are studying Individuals who are not St. Olaf
students, employees, or alumni, please describe any assistance you received in planning your
project from persons who are familiar with the group(s) you are studying and who could help you
develop appropriate protections. You may also use this space to explain anything in your ethics plan
that is not otherwise addressed above.
St. Olaf Institutional Review Board
September 2014